In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), shared his bullish outlook on Bitcoin. He emphasised the rising institutional curiosity and a positive regulatory surroundings that would propel the BTC value to new highs.
Thiel dismissed the influence of the latest Bitcoin halving, stating, “I feel the halving had zero impact.” As an alternative, he attributed the Bitcoin value surge to the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier this yr. “In January, you had the ETFs that launched that drove impulsively the beginnings of some institutional curiosity,” he famous.
Establishments Simply ‘Ready To Purchase Up’ Bitcoin
Whereas the preliminary investments in these ETFs have been predominantly retail, Thiel noticed a shift as institutional gamers started getting into the market. “Then you definately began seeing some pension funds beginning to purchase into ETFs and into Bitcoin-related equities like our inventory or MicroStrategy‘s,” he added.
The CEO highlighted the potential influence of political developments on the BTC market. “With the election, you realize, Donald Trump ran on a platform that could be very pro-Bitcoin—Bitcoin strategic reserve, mining within the US, and so on.,” Thiel mentioned. He steered that such a stance may result in a extra supportive regulatory surroundings in the US.
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“What that’s ended up driving is a large perception that impulsively the regulatory surroundings for Bitcoin and crypto will get a lot better, that the US will double down and actually put money into Bitcoin doubtlessly,” he defined. This anticipated shift may stress different nations to undertake related insurance policies, fostering international adoption.
Thiel additionally identified the sturdy market dynamics absorbing promoting stress from long-term holders. “Each single Bitcoin that had been bought was in revenue, and also you began long-term holders who had held Bitcoin for years starting to liquidate just a little bit to take some earnings,” he mentioned. Regardless of this, he emphasised the market’s resilience: “There may be a lot demand available in the market that it simply retains soaking it up.”
Addressing considerations about Bitcoin’s infamous volatility, Thiel asserted that important drawdowns is likely to be a factor of the previous, a minimum of within the close to time period. “The volatility of previous years, the place you’d hit a peak after which see a 20% or 30% drawdown, I feel are gone, a minimum of for the near-term future,” he acknowledged. He believes that institutional buyers are poised to enter the market aggressively. “I feel what we’re going to see is actually establishments simply ready to purchase up Bitcoin,” Thiel predicted.
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He cited latest actions by main companies to assist his outlook. “You have a look at MicroStrategy—they’re [issuing a] $3 billion bond; they’re on the market shopping for Bitcoin very aggressively,” he mentioned. “We raised a $1 billion bond at 0% coupon the identical week as Michael Saylor did, and we went out and bought tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of Bitcoin.” Thiel emphasised that this development is gaining momentum: “A lot of persons are beginning to do that now.”
Concluding his insights, Thiel expressed confidence in Bitcoin’s upward trajectory. “Anyone who’s promoting is promoting right into a market the place there’s ample demand, and I feel that for the foreseeable future we’ll proceed to see Bitcoin value transfer up—you realize, up and down, up and down—however usually the development can be upwards,” he mentioned.
Notably, Cantor Fitzgerald just lately adjusted its value goal for MARA from $33 to $42. The revision follows Mara Holdings’ completion of a considerable $1 billion convertible notice providing final week. From the $980 million raised, Mara used $199 million to purchase again $222 million in principal of its 2026 convertible notes. With $781 million in proceeds remaining, the corporate plans to buy extra Bitcoin, leveraging a technique much like MicroStrategy (MSTR).
Nevertheless, in contrast to MicroStrategy, which focuses purely on capital market maneuvers to build up Bitcoin, Mara additionally operates the most important publicly-traded Bitcoin mining operation by hash price. Analysts at Cantor spotlight this as a key differentiator with bullish potential.
At press time, BTC traded at $92,531.
Featured picture from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
